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Monday, July 27, 2009

rainin' inside...

Well, my friend's production of "Singin' in the Rain" turned out WAY better than I thought it was going to be. I think I mentioned how painfully slow the orchestra was on the night of the dress rehearsal I watched. Painfully slow. They stepped it up quite a bit, so closing night it sounded a ton better. I was glad, because everyone worked so hard all summer and the orchestra arrives unprepared to foul them all up. Not really fair in my opinion.

My friend, Mike, played Don Lockwood. He was doing an amazing job, until he tweaked his knee during the tap number of "Moses Supposes". Whoever was in charge of cleaning up the whipped cream that Tia/Kathy threw at ????/Lina had not finished their job. The rest of the play Mike had a slight limp. I felt badly about that, because as a joke, my sisters and I had purchased a stem of daisies to send backstage to him.

Before we let the delivery girl leave the the flowers, we went over to a garbage can and picked all but one of the petals off, leaving behind three empty heads and one bright blue petal standing straight up on the fourth. On the note we wrote "He'll break a leg....he won't break a leg...he'll break a leg...he won't break a leg...he'll break a leg...". At the end of the night, Mike said he'd laughed his head off, and then thought aloud "Maybe I should have pulled that last petal off...but it was so cute and funny I didn't want to!" We also sent a big bunch of daisies, purple, yellow, and orange, to his little girl and my adopted little sister. Love that kiddo!

We went to the show with my Nana and our two directors for Oz, Steve and his wife Kara. In 2001, my mom played Kathy in "Singin' in the Rain" and Steve played Cosmo, Don's best friend in the show. Mike played Don that year as well and directed it. It was kind of cool to watch them all, two in the audience and one onstage. Kind of like a memory lane trip, I suppose. Kara, Steve, mom, and dad sat behind my sisters, Mike's wife Colleen, and their three kids who weren't in the show. Kid 1 is their oldest and all boy. Kid 2 was performing. Kidlet 3 is a mad girl at age 3, and Kidlet 4 spent much of the time falling asleep on Colleen's or my shoulder. That baby is a portable heater, I kid you not. I liked to sit with Kid 1, because I haven't seen him in over a year. I don't know the Kidlets very well, but we got to be friends. Kidlet 3 chased me around the hallways after the show was over, and Kidlet 4 wouldn't let me hand her back to her mom after awhile when I was holding her. She fell asleep. Aw.

Steve and Kara made their escape from the plans our three families had made; after a show we ALWAYS go to IHOP together, and this year they ditched us. I think it was because Steve was so tired. Kara wanted to go, but she didn't know where two of her own children were, and they happened to be the only two without cell phones. So, they didn't get to have pancakes and hot chocolate and sausage and hamburgers (say what?) and caramel apple slices.

It was a lot of fun; Mike, my youngest sister, Kid 2, Kid 1, and my dad sat together at a table and took turns telling about our favorite movies, plays, and what we wanted to do when we grow up (at this point the fathers just listened). Mom, Colleen, my second sister, Kidlet 3, and Kidlet 4 sat at the table pushed to meet ours and...I don't really know what they talked about. Us, probably. Soon Kid 2 told me to eat her pancake and fell asleep with her head on my lap. Kidlet 3 curled up behind Meghan on the seat and fell asleep with her body wrapped around Meghan's waist. Kidlet 4 fell asleep in her basket, and Kid1 got so hyper that he made some sort of potion in his cup out of water, maple syrup, blueberry syrup, salt, pepper, and lemons. When he drank it he looked like he was going to die. I thought it was funny.

By the time we left it was 1:30 in the morning. Poor Kidlet 3 went into spasms when we tried to wake her up. She started kicking her sleep and yelling "Daddy, daddy, help me!" It was so sad, but somewhat funny at the same time. We could not get her to wake up, and it was awkward trying to pull her off of the seat. Mike finally accomplished it and as soon as he picked her up, Kidlet 3 went quiet. I love to watch Mike with his girls; he's such a marshmallow. He's called himself that. I think it was because when he directed the "King and I" he got reports that a lot of the kids in the cast (including myself) were teriffied of him. I can explain-when you have a tall, bulked up, goateed (at the time), bald man telling you what to do and where to be and looking angry all of the time (from stress, he's explained), you get scared. Mike got up in front of the kids and told us that he may look mean (someone described him as a Vin Diesel man), but really he's the winner of the title "State Puffed-Marshmallow Man", which I have learned to be true. I've never forgotten that, and it was over ten years ago. Wow.

As Colleen drove away with her family, we began to sing "Good Mornin'!" to them. It was truly an awesome evening/night/morning. :)